Podcast appearances and mentions of mason currey

Most creative geniuses didn't wait for inspiration, they manufactured it. This Daily Rituals summary reveals how Maya Angelou did it.

Have you ever lost the joy in your creative work — that sense of fun you had when you were starting out, before the admin and the algorithms drained it away? How do mid-career creatives get it back, and what can a four-year-old teach us about play? Austin Kleon talks about productive procrastination, silly rituals, the case for paper reference books in an AI world, and how his newsletter went from a marketing cost to the day job that keeps the lights on. In the intro, Does social media still sell books? [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Trial by algorithm [The Bookseller]; Publishing's AI Hypocrisy Problem [The New Publishing Standard]; ALLi AI survey for authors; Brave New Bookshelf Podcast, and Pics from signing at BookVault. Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with writing software, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 15% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why Austin wrote Don't Call It Art now, and what his kids taught him about creative joy Productive procrastination, silly rituals, and treating writing like Lego Comedy as a philosophical position, and giving yourself permission to be bad in private Sharing process in the algorithm era, and why your whole life is the process Bibliomancy, paper reference books, and what AI can't give you that a dictionary can Style, the Taco Bell distinctiveness rule, and how Austin's newsletter became his day job You can find Austin at AustinKleon.com. Transcript of the interview with Austin Kleon Jo: Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. So welcome back to the show, Austin. Austin: Thank you for having me back. It's nice to talk to you again. Jo: You were on the show in March 2020, and at the time, your book was Keep Going, which was prescient considering the pandemic and politics. So I wondered, why this book, Don't Call It Art, now? Was this something you see in the creative community or your own life that made you want to write this book? Austin: Keep Going is a book about what happens when the world goes crazy around you and you're still trying to do your creative work. This is a book about what happens when inside has bottomed out. Keep Going is a book about the world bottoming out, and you're worried that your own creative work is going to bottom out too. How do you keep pushing through and keep making stuff? This book, to me, is about what happens when you bottom out inside—when you've lost that love and feeling for the thing that you wanted to do, and you're just not connecting with it in the way that you used to or the way that you want to. How do you get back? How do you return to that sense of joy and wonder and fun that we have when we're starting out? And for me, it was being around my little kids that taught me how to tap into that. My kids were natural—they didn't have any creative hangups. I would spend all day talking to people who had creative hangups, and then I'd get back in the house, and I'd just be around these beings who didn't have any of them. It was really instructive. I felt like, if I could bottle the energy of my kids when they were about four years old and try to put it in a book, I think it could really help a lot of the people that I run into, and the people with the kinds of problems I hear from. Jo: You mentioned bottoming out. How do people know when they've hit that point? Austin: You just don't want to do it anymore. You're kind of like, “This just isn't giving me back what it used to.” When we start with our creative work, that's the thing that juices us. We come away from it feeling full up. I think you hit a certain point where you start to feel drained after it. Or maybe you don't feel drained by the thing itself that you're doing—maybe it's all the stuff around it, which is more often the case. For example, if you're a mid-career writer like me, who's been publishing books for 16 years now, I still really like writing. I still really like drawing. I still really like cutting and pasting and putting things together. It's the admin around the work—the emails, the meetings, the running-a-business part of it—that's super draining for me, and that stuff can start to bleed over into the creative work. So it's really important for me to make sure that I'm having some playtime, some R&D, some research and development time, to make sure it's not just all business. When you take the thing that you love and you turn it into the thing that you make a living from, you can really run into a lot of problems. Jo: I'm at 20 years, so I know exactly what you're saying, and a lot of listeners are the same. We love writing books, but it's all the stuff that goes around it. So for those of us who do this for money as well as passion, what are some practical ways to have more fun with our creativity? Austin: Something I learned from my kids is that you really are your most creative when you're supposed to be doing something else. So one of the things I use a lot in the studio is productive procrastination. Whatever I'm supposed to be working on, I start another little project, and that's my little naughty fun time. When I first come into the studio, I try to do something that I'm not supposed to be doing—something that I won't have much to show for. That could be making one of my blackout poems. That could be making a collage in my notebook. It could also be sitting here. I have a bass in the studio now, so I can practise my bass guitar. Sometimes I'll do that for the first 15 minutes just to get in that headspace of, “Hey, what's it like to do something just for yourself? Just because you want to do it?” The juice that you get from that little naughty “I'm going to do what I'm not supposed to be doing right now” thing, that carries into the rest of the day. It's like a nice start to things. Jo: Do you think that play could be something different to what we make our money with? For me, writing novels and stories is great fun in one way, but it's also what I then publish and make money on. So writing stories is more serious, I guess, than playing with Lego or something. Austin: Right. So the trick is, how can you make writing your stories like playing with Lego? That's kind of been my whole career. I hate staring at Microsoft Word and that blinking cursor, taunting you like, “Come on, what have you got?” A lot of my creative life has been about trying to make it more playful, trying to make it feel more like a game. That's how I came up with my blackout poems. I take an article from The New York Times and I black it out until it only has a few words left behind. It sort of looks like if the CIA did haiku, for some people listening. That was one little exercise. Then weirdly, that side thing that I thought was just play, just fun—that turned into my first book. So then it's, okay, what else can I mess around with and play with? I do a lot of collage work in the studio, and I rarely actually use that for any of the books. Sometimes I use it for my newsletter to illustrate the newsletter. But it's always about trying to figure out, how can I make writing a game? How can I make it more playful? There are different things that I do to make it feel more playful. One of them's really stupid. I really believe in silly rituals because I think silliness is really powerful. People talk about their daily rituals—Mason Currey has that great book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. When I was reading that book, I realised it was really the silly stuff that I really liked. There was, I think it was Balzac counting out coffee beans or something before he got to write. Or Steinbeck sharpening 12 pencils or something goofy like that. So one of the things I like to do before I write is that I have these cigarette pencils. They're pencils that look like cigarettes in the studio. I put one in my mouth before I start writing, and I pretend to be some old '40s writer on a typewriter. I like doing goofy stuff in the studio because I think when you do goofy stuff—stuff that you'd be embarrassed if anyone else saw it—it gets you in that playful state. Jo: It's interesting. In your book, you have a section that says, “Don't take things too seriously.” For many of us, we write memoir for example, and that is very close to us. It's like the deepest expression of what we want to say in the world. It feels very serious. So how can we hold things more lightly and not take things so seriously? Austin: For me, comedy is actually a philosophical position. What I mean by that is, I think a lot of people set out with a tragic model of creative work. They think, “Oh, I have this special gift,” or, “I have this thing that I really need to do, and I need to put it out into the world, and I need to make the world look more like I want it to look.” They have this idea that, “Through blood and sweat and tears, I'm going to see this thing through, and I'm going to push it into the world, and I'm going to have my way.” I think there's another way of working where it's more like, “I'm just a normal person trying to play with my environment, and take my experiences and put them into something interesting. So I'm going to play and use my wits, and we're going to see what we come up with.” Those really are two modes of life. The pandemic taught me that it was really when we were keeping our sense of humour, when we were having a laugh and keeping our egos in check around the house and just acknowledging how goofy we all were and how ridiculous the situation was, that seemed to be when we were really thriving. Versus, “Well, we're in this tough situation. We've got to make it into what we want it to be.” That felt really bad. But when we cruised along and we were just improvisational, when we went at things with a kind of lightness, that worked. There's a great Italo Calvino essay about lightness in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Lightness is really underrated. Even when we're going about heavy work, having a sense of lightness and play with it just makes the work better. That's a philosophical position of mine. I aspire to comedy. I aspire to a comic outlook on life. I'm just a creature with a body who's going to die, and I'm fundamentally ridiculous. Life is pretty absurd. You just make the best of it. Jo: There's certainly some truth there. Staying on a similar theme, you have a chapter in the book on permission to be bad. Many of the listeners also have your book Show Your Work, and it shaped many of us into sharing our work in progress. It feels quite dangerous now, in a world where judgment is much louder than it maybe was when you wrote Show Your Work. So tell us a bit about permission to be bad versus should we keep some of this private? Austin: Permission to be bad is about the making part of things. It's the private part. It's permission to be bad when you're in private, when you're actually doing the work. Show Your Work is a book about what you do after you've done the work, or while you're doing the work. It was never about putting up a webcam and running a 24/7 feed. It was more like, hey, what are the ways that I can connect with the kind of audience I can build while I'm making the work itself? So the way I see permission to be bad is, you really have to give yourself permission when you're not sharing, when you're off screen, to really be as bad as you want to be. It doesn't necessarily mean quality-wise. I think it also means letting yourself write stuff that you would never say on social media. Letting yourself read stuff that you wouldn't admit you were reading on social media. Letting yourself listen to stuff. Letting yourself really be that unfiltered, unhinged, private person that you want to be. Then when it comes to sharing, you put some time in between that input time, that making time, and the sharing time, and then you share what you think is going to be useful or helpful or interesting to other people. Jo: I think you wrote that book before TikTok, and how fast people are moving. Do you think people need to slow down a bit in what they share, maybe? Austin: I don't know. I obviously had a lot more faith in social media back then. I use all the principles from Show Your Work in my newsletter. Newsletters are very much the new kind of great thing. They're doing a lot of the work that social media used to do, in that you're still able to have this direct connection with the people that you're trying to reach. The big problem with social media now is that it's all algorithmically tuned, where the people that are following you don't see the stuff that you're doing most of the time. What you have to do now, if you want the people who are following you to see your stuff on social media, is you have to make stuff that the algorithm likes. That's a whole different thing. As far as the Show Your Work principle—which is share your process as much as your product—that carries over to any platform. In my newsletter every Friday, I share a list of 10 things that were going on behind the scenes here. It might have been what I was watching on TV, what I listened to, a new pen I was trying out, or something like that. The Friday newsletter is almost always process stuff. When I talk about process, my definition is actually very broad. For a lot of people, it's drafting, editing, whatever. For me, the process is the whole life. The process is almost everything except the finished thing. A writer's life is 24/7. My friends who have real jobs really are like, “What do you do all day?” And I'm like, “Well, what do you mean?” They're like, “Well, I see you out on your bike ride.” I'm like, “Yes, when you see me out on a bike ride, I'm thinking through something half the time.” If I'm watching TV, I'm thinking, “Hey, would this be good in the newsletter?” I'm never off. My whole life—everything is copy, as Nora Ephron said. That's part of the job. It's very hard to turn off. So I see the whole life as process, and the question becomes, what little bits and pieces of that life and that process can you share with people while you're making the things that you hope to sell them later? Right now, I'm in a cycle where I'm selling this book, but all these people have showed up because I've shared my process every week for the past seven years since I put out a book. Jo: It's funny you say that. I was at the dentist yesterday, and— My dentist literally asked me, “So where do you get all your ideas?” This is a common question for all of us, right? And it just becomes so hard to explain that to people who don't walk around in the world just constantly getting ideas. Austin: I can't believe I'm going to tell this story. I was getting my vasectomy after my second kid, and I was talking to this doctor just before the operation. He said, “So what do you do for a living?” I said, “I'm a writer.” He said, “Oh, that must be cool. You get to use your brain.” And I said, “That's everything that you want your doctor to say.” I was going to say, “Please use your brain,” before he's about to cut into you. He said, “Oh, no, no. What I mean is, I know what I'm going to do every day for the next 10 years.” He knew exactly what his day was going to look like. He said, “You have to use your brain. You've got to figure out new stuff.” I was like, “Oh, that's really interesting.” That's the trade-off, right? He's got the job security. He knows what he's going to do. Every writer has a moment where they have to talk to a normal person about what you do. Jo: I was going to say, I'm married to one. Austin: Now, my wife, on the other hand, grew up the daughter of a writer, so she knows exactly what it's like. Nothing ever phases her. She's totally used to it. She's used to me staring off into space, completely checking out of a conversation. She's used to me using lines on her that I'm going to put in a piece later. She's used to the whole rigmarole. It's very handy. I've been very lucky in that sense. Jo: Coming back to the book, you talk about your use of bibliomancy for inspiration. Since we're talking about that, tell us about it. I think all the book people listening will be happy. Austin: I'm a person who still keeps a dictionary nearby—a paper dictionary. I keep a big old American Heritage. It's just a big, thick book. When I really don't have any ideas, I will turn at random to the dictionary, close my eyes, stick my finger down the page, open my eyes, and just see what I come up with. Sometimes just that act will give me an idea. I also do that with books. I'll go around the studio, pick up a book, flip to a random page, and just see what it says there, or read an old piece of marginalia that I've left in a book. I believe deeply in the power of bibliomancy, and I think it's a case for paper books. I'm one of those people that still really believes in reference books. I've started collecting more and more of them. I have an old, big dictionary that's always open on my desk, and I look up words. I learned from John McPhee, the writer, that you should look up words that you think you know. That was the first time I'd ever heard anyone say that. So I look up words that I think I know. Instead of reaching for a thesaurus when I need a different word, I actually just look up the definition of the word that I already have. That's another McPhee tip. The other thing that happened that I thought was really interesting is, I got a Roget's for the first time—a thesaurus. I don't think most people know what an actual thesaurus is. Most people think of a thesaurus as a synonym finder, and that's not actually what a thesaurus is at all. A thesaurus is more like an encyclopaedia, weirdly. You look up things based on big concepts, and then it gives you a bunch of words to look up later. It's a very strange thing. It's not what most people think it is. I have a couple of editions of Roget's in here. I like the really old Roget's from the 1900s because they actually have opposing ideas facing each other on the page. Do you have an old-school Roget's? Have you ever looked through one? Jo: I don't have one now, but I certainly grew up with them. I was literally just thinking, I wonder if there are ones for Americans and ones for British people, because so often we say different things and mean different things. I always hear Americans say, “Oh, that's a doozy,” or something, and it means the complete opposite thing here. Austin: Like if you say “fanny pack” over there. That means something very different than it means here, right? Chips or fries, that kind of stuff. So I wonder if there are different ones for different cultural references. Jo: I don't know. Austin: As people, with ChatGPT and all these LLMs and stuff, people are like, “Why would you ever pick up a paper reference book?” And I'm like, “I actually like the friction.” I like having to move in space and go over to my dictionary. I like flipping the pages. I like having to scan a page for the word I'm looking for, because— This marvellous thing happens when you're looking for the word, where you bump into all these other words. If you're a word nerd, you get to start thinking about the root of the word—oh, why is this word next to this word? Well, it's because they share the same root. Then you're going down all these fun rabbit holes. The thing that I'm trying to do as a writer and a creative person is, I'm trying to get to the thing that I didn't know I was looking for. The thing that people misunderstand about AI, I think personally, is that it's a great tool if you know what you're looking for. If you're like, “Find me this thing. I want exactly this. I want to see a picture of a dog wearing a king's costume,” or some crap like that, then it can spit that picture out for you. Or, “I want to know what happened on this day,” and whatever. It can do that. But that's not actually what I'm doing most of the time when I'm writing or making something. I start with an idea, but what really happens—the magic of writing and the magic of making stuff in general—is when you discover something that you didn't even know you were headed for. That's the real magic for me. Sometimes I have an idea and I want to articulate it for people, but more often than not, there's something that bothers me or something that I want to talk about, and I sit down and write, and I figure out what it is that I actually have to say and what I actually think. Every writer really knows this, and that's why the dictionary, stuff like that, those are ways of training you to get in that discovery mode. “Well, let me—oh, I bumped into this. I went looking for this one thing and then I ran into this other thing.” That's why I love the library. I don't know what system you use over there, but you look for one book in the Dewey Decimal System over here, and then, okay, here's all these other weird books next to it. Then you end up with three other books other than the one that you were looking for. That's the magic. To me, that's the magic of creative work, discovering what you didn't know you were looking for. That was particularly important for me when I was writing this book because we discovered that my wife has a condition called aphantasia. It's very rare in the population, about 2 to 3% of people. There's probably some people listening to this right now who are like, “What is this? Tell me.” Jo: Aphantasia actually more common in the creative industries. Austin: Yes. What it is, is that you don't see—when I say close your eyes and picture an apple, you don't actually see the apple in your head. You can think about an apple and the qualities of an apple, but you don't actually see it. Some people, and it's a matter of degree—some people like me, I can close my eyes, I can tell you what the apple looks like, I can tell you what colour it is, I can tell you where the shading is. Someone like my wife doesn't see the apple. She can tell you what an apple is. It's really interesting because she has a degree in architecture, which is known as a very visual field. But the thing you discover about aphantasia is, it doesn't keep people from becoming artists. In fact, it's the opposite. Someone like Ed Catmull, who co-founded Pixar, writes about it in his book, and so many of the great animators at Pixar are actually aphantasics. The reason is that they learned that they had to draw in order to see things. When you don't have a picture in your head of what you want something to look like, things appear in the drawing, and you find things that you couldn't even picture. A lot of writers actually are aphantasics. John Green discovered recently that he has aphantasia. It turns out that it's a superpower for writers, because if you don't have a picture in your head, then you don't have to translate that picture into words. A lot of writers talk about thinking in radio, like they have a constant narrator. My wife—she's probably going to kill me for talking about her this much—when she describes it to me, she's like, “Oh, it's like a radio in my head. I'm constantly hearing a voice, and it's a narrator.” I was like, “Holy shit, that would be really helpful to me.” I don't have anything like that in my head. I read Mrs Dalloway for the first time, and I gave it to her and I said, “You've got to read this book. I think this must be what it's like in your head.” And she said, “Oh my God, it is.” Part of the thing that I took away from that experience—this is a long-winded way of getting here—is that I take a lot of inspiration from people with this condition. Most of the people I know in the arts or the creative fields, they set out with this grand vision, and then they start working on the thing and it's nothing like what they had in their head, and they get really depressed: “This isn't what I had in mind.” Whereas if you set out without a picture in your head, and you just start manipulating things and you see what appears, that's more of the comic mode I was talking about earlier. What would happen if we just sat down with our materials and we started playing and we saw what appeared on the page? What if we started typing and saw what appeared, and then we played with that? That's the kind of joy. That's more like how kids operate. Kids are better at that. They're better at reacting to what's actually in front of them, instead of having these grandiose visions about what they're trying to achieve. Jo: Just coming back on the longevity of a creative career. Your books are very distinctive. You have a very distinctive visual style, your handwriting and the way the books are done. I wondered if another part of the ennui, perhaps, or the draining of the later career is that we get trapped into doing something that feels like it looks the same. Or we have a voice, and we're happy in that voice, but sometimes we want to do something completely different. For authors, we have different names. I write under two different names, and that helps. But equally— How do you define author voice, and do you ever feel like doing something completely different to your normal style? Austin: Style, in a lot of ways, is self-plagiarism. Style is the repeated things that we notice in people's work. Hitchcock talked about this in films. Wes Anderson is someone like that—Wes Anderson has a style. I'm sure that he gets really sick of it too sometimes, but you also can't help it in some ways. I thought a lot about this because people worry about style so much. A lot of the time, what we call style is what Adrian Tomine one time said: “Style is just the distance between what's in my head and what comes out of my hand.” I really like that definition. With this book, I was trying to think, “Okay, if I do another book in this series, how can I push things a little bit?” And then I was reading this article about Taco Bell. You guys have Taco Bell over there, don't you? Do you have Taco Bell? Jo: No. Austin: So Taco Bell, for people who don't know, is this American Mexican chain, and they have tacos and burritos and stuff like that. They're well known for making these really insane… it's so American, this company. They make a taco with a Doritos as a shell. Doritos are crisps, I guess. Jo: Yes, we have Doritos. Austin: Okay. I spent time in England, I just don't remember if I ate Doritos when I was in England. Anyway, I was reading this article about Taco Bell. It was really funny. They have an innovation kitchen at Taco Bell, and they have a rule about new products. The rule is called the distinctiveness rule, and the rule is: you can change the flavour or you can change the taste, or you can change the form, but you can't change both at the same time. I got really obsessed with this concept because I thought, “Well, this could be kind of interesting.” If you're someone who's had success and you're known for something, this presents an interesting thing. You could do a complete break and do something completely new, or you could try the distinctiveness rule. Okay, well, what if I play with this idea of taste versus form? What if I change the taste and keep the form? So the idea for Don't Call It Art was, what if I do another one of these books, but the taste is more like if my kids made it? It had the texture of kids' art, it had lots of scribbles in it, it was loose and messy. That was kind of the idea. The actual book ended up being more like the other books. It ended up looking like an Austin Kleon book, because I just can't help that. The thing you said about having multiple names that you write under, that's kind of what I do with the newsletter. I think of the newsletter as very different from the books. The newsletter is this twice-weekly thing where I can be a little bit more of myself. In the books, I'm this very helpful, happy version of myself. It's me, but it's me on my best day. I'm really helpful and interesting for you. The newsletter is still a highlight reel in a sense, but it's a little bit more of my weird everything-I'm-into. It's more of the unclipped version of me. The newsletter becomes a place where I can do a lot of the weird stuff that's much different from the books. I have these little projects going all the time. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of prints and put them online. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of zines on a topic I haven't covered in the book. Sometimes I'll do a mixtape. As someone who's interested in a lot of different forms and genres and just different modes of output, having something like a newsletter has been really creatively fruitful for me. It's kept me from getting too bottomed out with the books because the books do a certain thing for the reader, and as much as I'd love to do a book that was radically different, I also think I've been given a real gift with the form of my books, in that I kind of own the way that they feel and look. There aren't a lot of books that look like those books and feel like those books, and so I like playing with that form. It would be hard to get rid of it now. The pseudonym for me is kind of like the newsletter in a sense. The newsletter is a little bit more of where I get to be wild and wacky. Then the books are a little bit more of a chiselled thing. Jo: The books are perfect examples of the form, as you say, but it's interesting about the newsletter. You mentioned at the beginning that we can be drained by the admin around the work. For many people listening, a newsletter becomes admin. So how does the newsletter fit into your business? The books are traditionally published, they're very professional. How do you have your independent side, and how does all of that work together in your business? Austin: Thank you for asking that question. I run the whole show at the newsletter. The newsletter is just me, and then my wife edits it, and no one else is involved. I don't have an assistant. I don't have a team. It is just me, and that's why I love it. I control everything. I pick who gets in there. I pick everything. I love that. I grew up watching David Letterman over here, and Letterman had a nightly show, and I always thought that was killer. I thought, “Man, what a fun job. You have a show every night where you have a new guest, and you have all these wacky things going on.” It was like a variety show. I always thought that would be really fun, so the newsletter is my version of that. I started the newsletter in 2013, and it was just a Friday newsletter. It quickly became a list of 10 things I thought were worth sharing. I had a friend, Hugh MacLeod, who was like, “Hey, I have a newsletter. It's bigger than any conference you've ever gone to.” He was talking about South by Southwest here in Austin. He's like, “I have a newsletter now, and it's bigger than South by Southwest.” Jo: Oh, I remember him. Austin: He would say, “Every time I have a new print, I put it out, and there's a button, and then they buy it.” He was like, “You've got to get it. This newsletter thing is killer.” This was in 2011 or something. Jo: Yes, I still have his books. Blogging in Your Underwear or something. Austin: Totally. So Hugh's a whole different story, but I was just like, “Oh, I should really get a newsletter.” Letterman always had a top 10 list on his show. I just always thought a 10 list was really fun. And of course the books are lists of 10 too. So it just worked to have a weekly list of 10. It felt good, and it felt like an infinitely repeatable format. What I'm looking for as a creative person is an infinitely repeatable format that can go on and on and on and be new every time. So the list of 10 is something that people know the form of. It goes back to the Taco Bell thing. They know the form, but they're not sure what's going to go inside. They know it's going to be a burrito, but they don't know what's going to be in the burrito, and that's the exciting part. The newsletter, business-wise, was always a marketing cost for about the first eight years of its existence. I paid MailChimp to send it out. Then in about 2021, when I hadn't done a book for a while, my agent said, “You know, you should really think about doing a paid tier of your newsletter.” And this is to his credit, because he doesn't make anything off the newsletter. He said, “There's this thing called Substack now that makes that really easy.” So we moved to Substack in 2021 in October, and I started doing a Tuesday edition of the newsletter that was just for paid people. That grew enough that it's gone from a marketing cost to something that's almost—it's not quite as much as I make on my books, but it's close. And to be candid, my books sell pretty well. So suddenly the newsletter has become this really healthy income stream. The newsletter to me is actually the day job now. The newsletter is what really keeps the lights on. It's also the perfect mix. It's the day job, it's the thing that keeps income coming in on a regular basis, but it's also the thing I like to do the most. I'm not like a traditional writer who likes to just get lost in their book and take years and years and go away. I'm someone who loves to be doing a lot of different things. The newsletter is a perfect format for me. I'm talking myself into not quitting, actually. It's funny. It's gone from this thing that was a marketing cost to now it's a significant part of our income. That journey—such a bad word, journey—that trip has been very interesting. It's been really cool. But I'm also just lucky. I've been really lucky, and I think part of my thing is, I'm always just trying not to squander my luck. Jo: Well, the book is fantastic, and I know people are going to love it. And the newsletter, of course. So tell us— Where can people find you and your books and newsletter online? Austin: The easiest thing to do is to just go to AustinKleon.com, and that has links to everything—the books, the newsletter. I do actually keep an old-school blog still. I'm one of the few people that still maintains their blog and keeps it up to date. I'm hedging my bets because I think in the end everything will come back to a self-hosted website. I think in the end everyone's going to just go back to their little websites, or at least I hope so. Jo: Well, that was great, Austin. Thanks so much. Austin: Oh, thank you. The post Don't Call It Art: Rediscovering Creative Joy With Austin Kleon first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Mark Adams and Nick Toga are back and we go all over the place. We talk about how AI is affecting artists, and chat about historic ways artists have negotiated making their way through the world as artists inspired by the Mason Currey book “Making Art and Making a Living”. This inspires topics such as being honest and open, using your voice, and creative mischief. Stick around for a bit of encouragement at the end! Check out Mark Adams on Instagram Check out Nick on Instagram

This is a preview of a premium episode. To the listen to the full thing, head over to our Substack: https://designbetterpodcast.com/p/mason-currey At several points in his life, Eli imagined what it would take to become a full-time artist — a photographer or illustrator free from client work. What he didn't realize was that he already had an example of a different path right in front of him: his father, a practicing physician whose published poetry earned recognition from luminaries like John Ashbery. Mason Currey's most recent book explores these alternate paths. He's the author of Daily Rituals, the beloved book that catalogued the working habits of nearly 200 artists, writers, and composers. His new book, Making Art and Making a Living, goes deeper — into the financial realities, the schemes, the compromises, and the surprising strategies that creatives have used to keep their work alive across centuries. What he found is both humbling and strangely reassuring. Virginia Woolf had inherited investments. Kafka had insurance. Chantal Akerman had a cash register she skimmed from. John Cage had Italian game show winnings. And yet, running through all of it is the same question that Mason has been asking about his own life since the day he sat down to write a novel and couldn't: How am I going to pay for this? In this conversation, Mason walks us through the four funding models his book explores — family money, day jobs, patronage, and schemes — and what the lives of creatives from Kafka to Murakami can teach us about building a practice that actually lasts. Bio Mason Currey is the author of the Daily Rituals books, featuring brief profiles of the day-to-day working lives of more than 300 brilliant minds. His latest book, Making Art and Making a Living, was published by Celadon Books on March 31, 2026. Currey lives in Los Angeles and writes Subtle Maneuvers, a twice-monthly newsletter on the creative process. *** Premium Episodes on Design Better This is a premium episode on Design Better. We release two premium episodes per month, along with two free episodes for everyone. New premium subscriber benefit coming soon: we're launching a private Slack community…join now so you get access when it launches! And get a behind-the-scenes pass to every episode with The Roundup, where each week we bring you insights and actionable tactics from recent episodes. Premium subscribers get access to the documentary Design Disruptors and our growing library of books. You'll also get access to our monthly AMAs with former guests, ad-free episodes, discounts and early access to workshops, and our monthly newsletter The Brief that compiles salient insights, quotes, readings, and creative processes uncovered in the show. And subscribers at the annual level now get access to the Design Better Toolkit, which gets you major discounts and free access to tools and courses that will help you unlock new skills, make your workflow more efficient, and take your creativity further. Upgrade to paid

È fondamentale un rapporto quotidiano con la creatività.Lo ascoltiamo leggendo un altro brano da “Rituali quotidiani”, di Mason Currey, edizioni Vallardi.Se questo podcast ti piace, aiutami a farlo arrivare da qualcuno che potrebbe trovarlo utile.Ti auguro una buona giornata.A presto!Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro

"Do what you love and the money will follow" is a nice bumper sticker — but how have real artists actually paid the bills? Mason Currey kicks things off with surprising stories of how creative legends funded their work, from day jobs to unlikely windfalls. Then Will Cady shares a framework for turning creative anxiety into your greatest asset. Sponsored By: Notion — Try Custom Agents now at ⁠notion.com/daily

La Natura è un grande attivatore della creatività.Lo ascoltiamo nella pratica di Giuseppe Verdi, tratta da “Rituali quotidiani” di Mason Currey, edizioni Vallardi.“RESPIRO” è la striscia quotidiana del podcast “Il Mondo Invisibile”, dedicata ad artisti, creativi e non solo.Se ti piace questo podcast, parlane con qualcuno a cui possa interessare. Ti auguro una buona giornata.A presto!Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro    

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Mason Currey, author of the new book Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life. He tells me how artists, writers and composers have wrangled through history with the challenge of scraping by, and how that has affected their art, from Baudelaire's lifelong outrage at being forced to live on an allowance and John Berryman's disastrous stint as a door-to-door encyclopaedia salesman to Haydn reinventing the musical idiom of his time because he was so far in the boondocks with his day job that he didn't know what the musical idiom of his time was, exactly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is Mason Currey, author of the new book Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life. He tells me how artists, writers and composers have wrangled through history with the challenge of scraping by, and how that has affected their art, from Baudelaire's lifelong outrage at being forced to live on an allowance and John Berryman's disastrous stint as a door-to-door encyclopaedia salesman to Haydn reinventing the musical idiom of his time because he was so far in the boondocks with his day job that he didn't know what the musical idiom of his time was, exactly.Become a Spectator subscriber today to access this podcast without adverts. Go to spectator.co.uk/adfree to find out more.For more Spectator podcasts, go to spectator.co.uk/podcastsContact us: podcast@spectator.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Il lavoro creativo può aiutarci a restare in equilibrio e ricaricarci.Una volta a settimana ascoltiamo la pratica creativa di un grande artista: oggi è la volta de leggendario regista Ingmar Bergman, in un brano tratto da “Rituali quotidiani” di Mason Currey, edizioni Vallardi.“RESPIRO” è la rubrica giornaliera del podcast “Il Mondo Invisibile”, dedicata ad artisti, creativi e non solo.Se trovi questo podcast interessante, parlane e condividilo con qualcuno a cui tieni. Ti auguro una buona giornata.A presto!Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro 

What does it actually take to make art and make a living at the same time? This week, Ekaterina Popova sits down with Mason Currey, author of the beloved Daily Rituals series and his brand new book, Making Art and Making a Living (Celadon Books), a rich, research-driven look at how artists across centuries have funded their creative lives. From day jobs and patrons to inheritances, government grants, and a few schemes that fall into grayer territory, Mason has compiled the stories so many of us have needed to hear. In this conversation, he and Kat explore why community matters more than most creatives realize, how constraints can actually be an artist's greatest asset, and the practical power of reverse engineering the career you actually want. If you have ever asked yourself whether you are doing this whole creative life thing right, this episode is your answer. Spoiler: you are in very good company. In this episode: Why community and creative scenes have always mattered more than solo genius How Mason's entire career grew from a blog post he wrote while procrastinating The surprising truth about artists who got everything they wanted, and still couldn't work Baudelaire, Whistler, and what history's most dramatic artistic money struggles can teach us about our own How to reverse engineer the career you want by studying the people who have it Why constraints, including financial ones, are often where the best work comes from The power of doing something, even a small, imperfect, DIY version of your vision Links and resources mentioned: Making Art and Making a Living by Mason Currey: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250824523/makingartandmakingaliving/ Mason Currey's website and newsletter (Subtle Maneuvers): masonwcurrey.com Best American Essays series (mentioned by Mason as a career research tool) Work with Kat + explore Create! Magazine: Create! Magazine celebrates working artists through features, interviews, and juried open calls. Submit your work, explore available articles, and join the community at createmagazine.co. Ready to grow your art career with step-by-step guidance? Explore micro courses on marketing, sales, visibility, and more at www.createu.co Visit www.createmagazine.co and click Programs to learn more. Private mentorship and coaching with certified master coach, Ekaterina Popova https://espopova.com 

This week, we explore the myth of sudden breakthroughs in creative and leadership journeys, digging instead into the reality: a meaningful life is built in the margins, not the spotlight. We first connect with Mason Currey, author of Making Art and Making a Living, who shares stories from the lives of celebrated creators—revealing that ideal conditions are a fantasy and resourcefulness is universal. Currey shows us how figures from Petrarch to William Carlos Williams navigated relentless financial and personal obstacles, crafting art in the cracks of busy lives.Next, we speak with Eric Zimmer, host of The One You Feed podcast and author of How a Little Becomes a Lot, whose personal story exemplifies how transformation isn't about a single moment, but rather the accumulation of thousands of small, deliberate choices. Zimmer challenges our culture's obsession with epiphanies and quick fixes, highlighting the power of feeding the “right wolf”—those daily choices that align with our values and ambitions.We investigate how leaders can implement subtle, consistent behaviors that compound into real impact, and why honest feedback, clarity, and persistent incremental actions create lasting change. It's a nuanced reminder: small maneuvers, not grand gestures, drive creative and leadership success.Five Key LearningsBreakthroughs are Overrated: Lasting creative or personal progress depends less on dramatic moments than on the accumulation of small daily decisions.Art Thrives in Constraints: Many renowned creators made their work in imperfect conditions, often juggling day jobs or hustling for resources—scarcity can fuel focus and innovation.Identity and Work Are Entwined: It's reductive to separate oneself too much from their creative work; acknowledging the link helps navigate inner criticism with nuance.Naming the Inner Critic Creates Distance: Recognizing and naming internal narratives (even humorously) diminishes their power, enabling agency and resilience.Subtle Leadership Yields Big Results: Consistent clarity, regular feedback, and willingness to have hard conversations are small leadership moves that compound into greater outcomes.Get full interviews and bonus content for free! Just join the list at DailyCreativePlus.com.Mentioned in this episode:To listen to the full interviews from today's episode, as well as receive bonus content and deep dive insights from the episode, visit DailyCreativePlus.com and join Daily Creative+.Apply for Creative Leader Roundtable Every creative team needs a leader who's brave, focused, and brilliant, but none of us get there alone. The Creative Leader Roundtable is your place to connect with peers, sharpen your leadership craft, and stay inspired for the long haul. We're about to launch with a brand new group of leaders. So, if you're interested, visit CreativeLeader.net to learn more and to apply. Great leadership is a practice, not an accident.

Un lavoro creativo può essere sostenuto da rituali e routine.Ascoltiamo le abitudini della ballerina e coreografa Twyla Tharp, da una pagina di “Rituali quotidiani”, di Mason Currey, edizioni Vallardi."RESPIRO" è l'appuntamento quotidiano del podcast "Il Mondo Invisibile" dedicato ad artisti, creativi e non solo.Se ti piace questo podcast, parlane con qualcuno a cui possa interessare.Ti auguro una buona giornataA presto!Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro 

What's the secret to making a living doing your art? “There really is no magic trick … spoiler,” says Mason Currey, author of Making Art and Making a Living. But in this episode of Emerging Form, we talk with Currey about what he learned by studying how other creatives across genres, cultures and centuries have made it work. We also talk about his own relationship to creative practice–little tricks and attitude shifts, the importance of repetition and habit, developing trust in our own practice, and which compromises can really harm our creative energy.Mason Currey is the author of the Daily Rituals books, featuring brief profiles of the day-to-day working lives of more than 300 brilliant minds. His latest book, Making Art and Making a Living was published on March 31, 2026. Currey lives in Los Angeles and writes Subtle Maneuvers, a twice-monthly newsletter on the creative process. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingform.substack.com/subscribe

Un lavoro creativo può avere gli stessi ritmi di un lavoro regolare?Ascoltiamo come andava per la scrittrice Willa Cather, da una pagina di “Rituali quotidiani”, l'autore è Mason Currey, edizioni Vallardi."RESPIRO" è la rubrica giornaliera del podcast “Il Mondo Invisibile”, dedicata ad artisti, creativi e non solo.Se ti piace questo podcast, parlane con qualcuno a cui possa interessare. Ti auguro una buona giornataA presto! Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro

La creatività può richiedere pratiche diverse, come diversi siamo tutti noi, metodici, ribelli, ordinati, disordinati.Il respiro di oggi lo prendiamo dal libro “Rituali quotidiani” di Mason Currey e parla della pratica di Charles Schulz, leggendario autore dei Peanutz. Se ti piace questo podcast, parlane con qualcuno che a cui possa interessare. Ti auguro una buona giornataA presto! Alessandro#ilmondoinvisibilepodcast #respiropodcast #arte #creatività #ispirazione #podcastitaliani #respiro

Writer and editor Mason Currey on what artists' routines can teach us about focus, discipline, procrastination, and building a sustainable creative life.You'll learn:What led Mason to writing, and the early pressures that shaped his relationship with the work.Why he started Daily Routines as a side project, and what he was trying to solve with it.The moment the blog went viral, and what changed when an audience arrived.What it took to turn a quote-collecting blog into a book, including the research and structure behind it.Why routines work best when they're personal and flexible rather than prescriptive.Ideas for protecting your best hours, including Nicholson Baker's “double morning.”The difference between physical routine and creative routine, and why both matter.A realistic way to design an hour of writing, including what to do when “nothing happens.”What Worm Zooms are, and why “small progress” can be a powerful creative philosophy.The question underneath every routine: how artists make time for the work while paying the bills.Resources and Links:

Today's episode is based on Mason Currey's piece, John Cage on the true meaning of discipline. You should subscribe to Mason's essential newsletter, Subtle Maneuvers. And here's his piece about totally insane, unhinged, helpful strategies. Mason's book, Making Art and Making a Living is available for pre-order here. The John Cage interview excerpts come from The Internet Archive. Hear the whole thing @John Cage interviewed by Jack Hirschman in Los Angeles, 1963. Mason was last on TBAS talking about procrastinating properly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Malaka Gharib is a writer, journalist, and cartoonist. She is the author of I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, winner of an Arab American Book Award and named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Public Library. By day, she works on NPR's science desk, covering the topic of global health and development. Her comics, zines, and writing have been published in NPR, Catapult, The Seventh Wave Magazine, The Nib, The Believer, and The New Yorker.  --- Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work --- Brad Stulburg on not needing to feel good to get going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today Chris raises the question expressed in the title of this episode. Enthusiasts for Artificial Intelligence promise that chatbots will make everyone more efficient and productive--even novelists and scholars. But is that really possible considering what history's most famous creatives tell us about how they went about their work? People who've looked into their daily routines such as Oliver Burkeman (author of, Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals) and Mason Currey (author of, Daily Rituals) inform us that people like Charles Darwin and Flannery O'Connor only worked 3 to 4 hours a day on the things we remember them for. The rest of the time they did other things--mostly unrelated. So, would they have gotten more done with the help of artificial intelligence? The Pugs have their doubts. Tune in and find out why. Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Connect with Glenn and Every Square Inch Ministries at https://www.esquareinch.com/ Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today Chris raises the question expressed in the title of this episode. Enthusiasts for Artificial Intelligence promise that chatbots will make everyone more efficient and productive--even novelists and scholars. But is that really possible considering what history's most famous creatives tell us about how they went about their work? People who've looked into their daily routines such as Oliver Burkeman (author of, Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals) and Mason Currey (author of, Daily Rituals) inform us that people like Charles Darwin and Flannery O'Connor only worked 3 to 4 hours a day on the things we remember them for. The rest of the time they did other things--mostly unrelated. So, would they have gotten more done with the help of artificial intelligence? The Pugs have their doubts. Tune in and find out why.Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8Connect with Glenn and Every Square Inch Ministries at https://www.esquareinch.com/Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today Chris raises the question expressed in the title of this episode. Enthusiasts for Artificial Intelligence promise that chatbots will make everyone more efficient and productive--even novelists and scholars. But is that really possible considering what history's most famous creatives tell us about how they went about their work? People who've looked into their daily routines such as Oliver Burkeman (author of, Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals) and Mason Currey (author of, Daily Rituals) inform us that people like Charles Darwin and Flannery O'Connor only worked 3 to 4 hours a day on the things we remember them for. The rest of the time they did other things--mostly unrelated. So, would they have gotten more done with the help of artificial intelligence? The Pugs have their doubts. Tune in and find out why. Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Connect with Glenn and Every Square Inch Ministries at https://www.esquareinch.com/ Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today Chris raises the question expressed in the title of this episode. Enthusiasts for Artificial Intelligence promise that chatbots will make everyone more efficient and productive--even novelists and scholars. But is that really possible considering what history's most famous creatives tell us about how they went about their work? People who've looked into their daily routines such as Oliver Burkeman (author of, Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals) and Mason Currey (author of, Daily Rituals) inform us that people like Charles Darwin and Flannery O'Connor only worked 3 to 4 hours a day on the things we remember them for. The rest of the time they did other things--mostly unrelated. So, would they have gotten more done with the help of artificial intelligence? The Pugs have their doubts. Tune in and find out why. Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Connect with Glenn and Every Square Inch Ministries at https://www.esquareinch.com/ Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/ Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Today's wisdom comes from Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.   If you're loving Heroic Wisdom Daily, be sure to subscribe to the emails at heroic.us/wisdom-daily.   And… Imagine unlocking access to the distilled wisdom form 700+ of the greatest books ever written.   That's what Heroic Premium offers: Unlimited access to every Philosopher's Note. Daily inspiration and actionable tools to optimize your energy, work, and love. Personalized coaching features to help you stay consistent and focused   Upgrade to Heroic Premium →   Know someone who'd love this? Share Heroic Wisdom Daily with them, and let's grow together in 2025!   Share Heroic Wisdom Daily →

In deze eerste Van Dis Ongefilterd met publiek (dank voor uw komst) vanaf het festival Writers Unlimited in Den Haag (op 26 januari jl.). Adriaan en Simon spreken over: wat heeft Adriaan op het festival gedaan / een piemelclub / de weduwe van Indië / Chateau de Hooge Vuursche / de veelzijdige George Orwell / rituelen van Sartre en Agatha Christie / diepe en oppervlakkige vragen uit het publiek / gastdichteres Indiana Speciale gast: Saartje van Camp (feat. Judith Rijsenbrij) In verband met BumaStemra konden we niet de gehele nummers laten horen in de uitzending, Meer horen van Saartje, bijvoorbeeld het nummer Vallen: https://open.spotify.com/track/6td5qOEBIxTpQ2kosZSBT6?si=fEoT0NAPRcaHQ0JZC5Sv0g&context=spotify%3Asearch%3Asaartje%2Bvan%2Bcamp Het album van Saartje heet In de naam van en is op cd en vinyl te krijgen: https://www.platomania.nl/search/results/?q=saartje+van+camp&format= Dagelijkse rituelen van Mason Currey (in de Nederlandse versie met bijdragen van Eva Hoeke is hier te bestellen: https://www.boekenwereld.com/mason-currey-dagelijkse-rituelen-9789492493378 Je kunt de boeken van Adriaan natuurlijk in de boekwinkel bestellen, maar veel van zijn boeken zijn ook als audioboek te beluisteren, ingesproken door Adriaan zelf. Neem nou bijvoorbeeld Ik kom terug bij Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ns45PTEOXWBkNy9sLwO8D?si=pBhBrJ-MQF2SMKVQiSu0FQ Simon interviewt Christien Brinkgreve over haar boek Beladen huis op 15 februari in Bergen (NH): https://www.eerstebergenscheboekhandel.nl/activiteit/christien-brinkgreve-beladen-huis-boekpresentatie/ Volg het instagram account van de podcast: @vandis.ongefilterd. Wil je een vraag stellen of reageren? Mail het aan: vandis@atlascontact.nl Van Dis Ongefilterd wordt gemaakt door Adriaan van Dis, Simon Dikker Hupkes en Bart Jeroen Kiers. Techniek: Marc Reijnen (van Ontrack studio). Montage: Sten Govers (van Thinium Audioboekproducties). © 2025 Atlas Contact | Adriaan van DisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adriaan en Simon bespreken in deze aflevering: trampraters / 1 miljoen & Simon verrast Adriaan / rectificatie Grenadierstrasse / Eindstation Auschwitz / dagelijkse rituelen (van kunstenaars) / boter op Adriaans hoofd? / reprise Van der Lubbe Schrijvers/componisten van dienst: Ida Gerhardt / Eddy de Wind / Mason Currey / Ernest Hemingway / Simeon ten Holt / Adriaan Roland Holst Eindstation Auschwitz van Eddy de Wind, met een voorwoord van Adriaan van Dis is hier te bestellen: https://www.boekenwereld.com/eddy-de-wind-eindstation-auschwitz-9789089682918 Dagelijkse rituelen van Mason Currey (in de Nederlandse versie met bijdragen van Eva Hoeke is hier te bestellen: https://www.boekenwereld.com/mason-currey-dagelijkse-rituelen-9789492493378 De eeuw van Simeon ten Holt is een documentaire die ten tijde van de opnames in de bioscopen te zien is. Het gedicht van Ida Gerhardt is Onvervreemdbaar Het gedicht van Adriaan Roland Holst is Eens Huts van The Blockparty & Esko (featuring Mouad Locos, JoeyAK, Young Ellens & Chivv (prod. Puri)): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYk14hnua8k Je kunt de boeken van Adriaan natuurlijk in de boekwinkel bestellen, maar veel van zijn boeken zijn ook als audioboek te beluisteren, ingesproken door Adriaan zelf. Neem nou bijvoorbeeld Ik kom terug bij Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ns45PTEOXWBkNy9sLwO8D?si=pBhBrJ-MQF2SMKVQiSu0FQ Volg het instagram account van de podcast: @vandis.ongefilterd. Wil je een vraag stellen of reageren? Mail het aan: vandis@atlascontact.nl Van Dis Ongefilterd wordt gemaakt door Adriaan van Dis, Simon Dikker Hupkes en Bart Jeroen Kiers. Montage: Sten Govers (van Thinium Audioboekproducties). © 2025 Atlas Contact | Adriaan van DisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adriaan en Simon bespreken in deze aflevering: de zesde dalai lama / goede voornemens: extravagantere kleding / dagelijkse rituelen (van kunstenaars) / wapperen met een geslachtsdeel / een niet met naam genoemde Nederlandse schrijver / Adriaans schrijfketting (psychiatrisch verklaard) / een teruggevonden fantasie: voor jezelf of deel je die? / poëtisch intermezzo / luisteraarspost / uit Adriaan boekenkast Schrijvers van dienst: Paul van der Velde / Mason Currey / Simon Vestdijk / Ed. Hoornik / Timothy Snyder / Victor Klemperer / Ben Okri Een turkooizen bij van Paul van der Velde is hier te bestellen: https://www.boekenwereld.com/zesde-dalai-lama-een-turkooizen-bij-9789493332980 Dagelijkse rituelen van Mason Currey (in de Nederlandse versie met bijdragen van Eva Hoeke) is hier te bestellen: https://www.boekenwereld.com/mason-currey-dagelijkse-rituelen-9789492493378 De gedichten van het intermezzo: Grafschrift van Simon Vestdijk, Pogrom en Ballade van de nachtredacteur van Ed. Hoornik. Link naar de substack van Timothy Snyder: https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/the-mump-oligarchy-a-glossary?r=1xnn8a&utm_medium=ios Victor Klemperers Barre bevrijding is te digitaal te lezen of luisteren: Audioboek: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XiA8Sp4tBtMeLrY7JVMCQ E-book: https://www.boekenwereld.com/victor-klemperer-barre-bevrijding-9789045041414 Je kunt de boeken van Adriaan natuurlijk in de boekwinkel bestellen, maar veel van zijn boeken zijn ook als audioboek te beluisteren, ingesproken door Adriaan zelf. Neem nou bijvoorbeeld Ik kom terug bij Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ns45PTEOXWBkNy9sLwO8D?si=pBhBrJ-MQF2SMKVQiSu0FQ Volg het instagram account van de podcast: @vandis.ongefilterd. Wil je een vraag stellen of reageren? Mail het aan: vandis@atlascontact.nl Van Dis Ongefilterd wordt gemaakt door Adriaan van Dis, Simon Dikker Hupkes en Bart Jeroen Kiers. Montage: Sten Govers (van Thinium Audioboekproducties). © 2025 Atlas Contact | Adriaan van DisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if inspiration didn't have to arrive in rare, dramatic bursts? Inspired by Mason Currey's “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work,” I've learned that simple routines can nurture creativity in ways we don't always expect. By creating rituals, we can stay energized, connect more deeply with patients, and prevent burnout.   For me, a daily writing routine became a powerful tool for self-expression and healing during a difficult time. This wasn't about waiting for the perfect moment to write; it was about showing up consistently and letting creativity flow. I believe rituals help us turn everyday practices into grounding moments that open us up to creative energy. What small, intentional habits could make a difference in your own life? I think they just might, especially in medicine, where creativity is often hidden in the art of patient care and problem-solving.   In this episode, I'm sharing practical ways to stay inspired, like finding dedicated workspaces or discovering your best times of day for focused tasks. Whether you're a physician or simply looking for ways to invite more creativity into your life, I hope my journey reminds you that inspiration can be woven into the fabric of our daily routines through purposeful rituals.   Quotes “I believe that a career in medicine is one of the most creative careers. You see, you're energetically engaged with a patient. You're using all five senses, which means you're putting yourself in flow.”  (01:00 | Dr. Lara Salyer) “Routine matters... Structure actually helps creativity. But really, it's about consistency, and our brain is a predictive machine.” (07:28 | Dr. Lara Salyer) “Constraints actually will fuel creativity... the more constraints you apply, your brain works a little harder to be creative.” (20:44 | Dr. Lara Salyer) “Persistence over perfection… We need to have a ‘BM' once a day—one bare minimum daily. Done is better than perfect.” (22:12 | Dr. Lara Salyer) “Medicine should be fun. It should be a self-expressive act. It should be a creative act where you're helping your patient heal.” (23:11 | Dr. Lara Salyer)   Links Free Catalyst Calendar planner: https://healthinnate.activehosted.com/f/49 Take the Archetype quiz to find your ideal play activity: https://3nb09zv7070.typeform.com/archetype Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/0307273601 Right Brain Rescue Book: Amazon store front: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B08JCKBWK5/   Connect with Lara:  Website: https://drlarasalyer.com The Catalyst Way: https://drlarasalyer.com/catalyst Instagram: @drlarasalyer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drlarasalyer Linked-In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlarasalyer/ YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/DrLaraSalyer TikTok: @Creativity.Doctor   Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

In this episode of "Save That Spark," Lisa Welsh tackles a pressing issue many couples face: what to do when your spouse doesn't want sex. Addressing the complexities of declining sexual desire in relationships, Lisa provides insightful strategies to bridge the gap between emotional and physical intimacy. Discover how to enhance connection without blame, explore the interplay of emotional support and sexual intimacy, and utilise practical tools to reignite the spark. Whether it's overcoming distractions like technology, understanding different types of libido, or improving communication, this episode offers a compassionate guide to navigating a sexless marriage and revitalising your connection. Links: Recommended sex therapists: https://mysexualhealth.co.za/pages/consultations Daily Rituals by Mason Currey: https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/0307273601 A Man's Guide to Sexual Confidence: https://savethatspark.com/confidence-guide

Diving into routines and rituals of the world's greatest artist from Mason Currey's book: Daily Rituals -----4:45 - Gertrude Stein and  Haruki Murakami - Short vs long routines6:50 - Ernest Hemingway - Leave some juice in the tank9:30 - Marcel Proust - Is it sustainable 12:40 - Beethoven  and Soren Kierkegaard - Walks as an aid to creativity 17:30 - Woody Allen and Nicholas Baker - The importance of novelty 21:15 - David Lynch - Meditation 23:50 - N.C. Wyeth - Limit Distractions25:40 - Creativity Reminders 30:00- Do's and Don'ts-----Check out my new book Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of ExcellenceYou can get some Chasing Greatness Apparel here

Hey, welcome back to The Switch! Eric and I are hanging out again at JuJuice, diving into Creative talk about launching ideas. In this episode, we're tackling the idea of creative urgency—how to keep pushing even when it feels tough. We shared insights from our own experiences about how setting the right intentions can really drive your projects forward. Switch-it-up Steps: Launch It: Got an idea? Don't just sit on it. Launching is the first big step to bringing your creative vision to life. Stay Fired Up: Keep that creative energy high. If you're feeling low, switch up your routine or workspace to reignite that spark. Collect and Use Ideas: We talk about practical ways to save and organize your ideas, like using your phone to take screenshots or bookmarking posts that inspire you. This helps turn those sparks of inspiration into something real. We also discussed some must-read books that fuel our creative drives. One book is Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, which dives into the routines of over 150 creative greats, offering tons of inspiration for anyone looking to boost their creative output. As we wrap up this session, remember: being creative takes courage, and sometimes, you just have to go for it. Stay connected, stay creative, and let's keep switching it up! Stay Connected: Catch Eric: @infinitetalkspod Catch Oscar: @happyoscarstudio

160 greatest Artists daily routines is condensed in this fantastic book by Mason Currey. In this snacky episode of THE ARTISTS PODCAST, Suchita extracts some of the rituals of her favourite artists- Fellini, Chopin, Picasso, Tesla, Benjamin Franklin, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Maya Angelou, Freud..Hopefully this will inspire all you guys to identify and sculpt you routines. Please connect with us at Metaphysicallab, Suchita. You can also join our insta handle- the.artistspodcast Email id: metaphysicallab@gmail.com/  You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @eplogmedia, For partnerships/queries send you can send us an email at bonjour@eplog.media DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on all the shows produced and distributed by Ep.Log Media are personal to the host and the guest of the shows respectively and with no intention to harm the sentiments of any individual/organization.The said content is not obscene or blasphemous or defamatory of any event and/or person deceased or alive or in contempt of court or breach of contract or breach of privilege, or in violation of any provisions of the statute, nor hurt the sentiments of any religious groups/ person/government/non-government authorities and/or breach or be against any declared public policy of any nation or state.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Productivity is a dead-end pursuit. Our to-dos will always fill whatever space we give it. How can we let go of the habits driving us to do more, better, faster? How can we make time for what matters most? In this episode of Design Yourself we explore: Our relationship with time; Examples of how time influenced the daily routines of artists Sylvia Plath and Erik Satie;  Sharon's musings on how urgency and scarcity impact our relationship to how much time we have and how much time we need; Reflection questions to create awareness and alignment on how we each move with and in time. “Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved “work-life balance,” whatever that might be, and you certainly won't get there by copying the “six things successful people do before 7:00 a.m.” The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you're meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody's angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you've become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let's start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That's excellent news.” -Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks Stay Connected To book your 1:1 Vision Reading: https://pointroadstudios.com/product/vision-reading/ For show notes visit: https://pointroadstudios.com/podcast/how-to-make-time/  To connect on Linked In:  @Sharon Lipovsky @Point Road Studios  To connect on Instagram: @pointroadstudios Rate, Review & Subscribe to the podcast on Apple & Spotify Ideas Shared Reflection Prompts What is your flavor of distraction? What if it's not time that's hold you back? What else could it be? What are you wishing for? How might you make that happen in the next month? What else might work to try? What if you let time be? Links and Resources Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It by Oliver Burkeman And a good summary and review in The Guardian by Tim Adams Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey

Would you be more adventurous if you had more structure? Do you multitask while brushing your teeth? And what would Mike's perfect brother Peter do?  SOURCES:David Brooks, opinion columnist for The New York Times.Colin Camerer, professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology.James Clear, writer.Mason Currey, author.David Goggins, ultra-endurance athlete and retired U.S. Navy SEAL.Jesse Itzler, entrepreneur and author.Katy Milkman, professor of operations, information and decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and host of the Choiceology podcast.Aneesh Rai, professor of management and organization at the University of Maryland.Tony Robbins, author, motivational speaker, and life coach.Sydney Scott, professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis.Cass Sunstein, professor and founding director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School.Elanor Williams, professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis. RESOURCES:"A Field Experiment on Subgoal Framing to Boost Volunteering: The Trade-Off Between Goal Granularity and Flexibility," by Aneesh Rai, Marissa A. Sharif, Edward H. Chang, Katherine L. Milkman, and Angela L. Duckworth (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2023)."What's Next? Advances and Challenges in Understanding How Environmental Predictability Shapes the Development of Cognitive Control," by Yuko Munakata, Diego Placido, and Winnie Zhuang (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2023)."A Neural Autopilot Theory of Habit: Evidence From Consumer Purchases and Social Media Use," by Colin Camerer, Yi Xin, and Clarice Zhao (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2023)."In Goal Pursuit, I Think Flexibility Is the Best Choice for Me but Not for You," by Sydney E. Scott and Elanor F. Williams (Journal of Marketing Research, 2022).Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear (2018).Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond (2016).Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet, by Jesse Itzler (2015)."The Good Order," by David Brooks (The New York Times, 2014).Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Currey (2013).

In this episode I briefly discuss the bullshit that is war of any kind and I pay brief homage to Matthew Perry (R.I.P.) before reflecting on some favorite passages from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet and Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. In reflecting on what Rilke calls "the happiness of being a beginner," I announce my intention to begin writing a novel this month—and to complete 50,000 words of it—as a first-time participant in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And in sharing some gems from Daily Rituals, I discuss some of my own sacred routines, as well as some words of wisdom on discipline and inspiration from Gustave Flaubert, Steve Reich, Samuel Beckett, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Bernard Malamud.

Judith Donath is a design thinker for some of the most important theory for how people interact in online spaces, drawing on evolutionary biology, architecture, ethnography, cognitive science. She just might be the voice we need for the multi-media multiscale world we're walking into. Origins Podcast WebsiteFlourishing Commons NewsletterShow Notes:Tsundoku (09:00)The cost of honesty (09:30)theory of mind, MIT Media Lab, and Marvin Minsky (13:00)Roger Schank (13:30)cultural metaphors (14:00)Ocean Vuong (17:15)The Architecture Machine by Nicholas Negroponte (19:30)Bell Labs (20:15)Vienna Circle (20:20)Sociable Media Group (22:40)The Social Machine by Judith Donath (23:05)Fernanda Viégas (35:20)Chat Circles (35:30)Gossip, Grooming, and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar (39:00)The Strength of Weak Ties by Mark Granovetter (43:20)Berkman Klein Center (47:00)Signalling Theory (49:00)Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey (56:00)The Experimental Novel by Émile Zola (59:00)C Thi Nguyen Origins (59:20)Lightning Round (01:00:30)Book: The Lord of the Rings by JRR TolkienPassion: Crossfit's way of thinking about metricsHeart sing: Street photographyTeju ColeScrewed up: Traditional academiaFind Judith online:Website'Five-Cut Fridays' five-song music playlist series  Judith's playlistFlourishing SalonsLearning Salon AIArtwork Cristina GonzalezMusic swelo

This is the name of a book by Mason Currey describing the rituals and routines of 161 creatives from composers and writers to painters and poets. Here are a few to take note of. What is it that you do to stimulate your creativity? Find more about Dan Miller and Wisdom of the Sages at https://www.48days.com/wisdom-of-the-sages-podcast/

In This week's episode, Lance and Jacklyn discuss book, Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.  They talk about some of the most fascinating artists and thinkers in history and their daily routines which inspired and influenced their work.Jacklyn shares her thoughts on the destructive patterns that most of these great minds exhibited and the growing trend towards health and balance.  Lance shares fun facts about Ben Franklin, Woody Allen, and more.  Tune in for a fun and interesting conversation about the people we know and love as well as some helpful takeaways tha tyou can implement into your daily routine.We also share a great recipe and, of course and stand up comedy recommendation for you!Enjoy!For more stories, check out Mason Currey's book:https://a.co/d/g1ceyKr

Our book this month is definitely worthy of the book of the month. Our book is Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. I was put onto this book by Tim Ferris who has been recommending it for some time. Daily Rituals is a fascinating book by Mason Currey that delves into the daily habits and routines of some of the most creative minds in history. From writers and painters to composers and scientists, the book provides a captivating look at how these artists structured their lives to maximize their creativity and productivity. If you are involved in a creative endeavor in your work, you are an artist. The author has compiled a wealth of information on the daily habits of creative geniuses, providing a unique perspective on how they managed to accomplish so much in their lives. --------------- Host: Victor Menasce email: podcast@victorjm.com

Hugh Montgomery is a someone who, if he wasn't so darned lovely, you'd probably have to envy quite a lot. He's a practicing clinician, a UK lead on climate change, he's written screen-plays, runs ultramarathons, learns a new skill a year, holds a world-record, and is now releasing his first full-novel.It's called 'Control' - a thriller set in the medical-world (write what you know) all about a bullying, over-bearing Doctor, and the way he treats colleagues, which comes back to haunt him. We talk about brooding over the idea for the story, escaping to France to write it, and where he thinks the story actually came from.As he manages to fit in so much into his day, we talk about where he finds the time and why he rations sleep. Also, we talk about why he learns a new skill every year, and how he believes it to be crucial to make time stop flying by.Also - you can hear a distinguished routine from history with Mason Currey, and grab his new book 'Daily Rituals: Women at Work' here - https://masoncurrey.com/If you can, please do support the show! - patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and we've got another day of weirdly temperate weather, and you should expect highs in the 70s served alongside some clouds. Just to make sure I'm not misremembering all the previous Novembers of my life, I went and pulled the historic average temperatures for November in Richmond. Typically we see highs around 65 °F in the beginning of the month—compare that to this weekend's forecasted highs in the 80s! Water cooler Today, the Capital Region Land Conservancy announced that local residents have gifted them 3.5 acres of river-adjacent property, adding new green space to the James River Park System and protecting portions of the Buttermilk Trail forever. From the press release: “The Rogers have subdivided their property and donated 3.46 acres, including the entirety of the trail network located on their property, to the Capital Region Land Conservancy to be protected in perpetuity and be added into the James River Park System conservation easement upon transfer to the City of Richmond.” For whatever ancient and historical reason, portions of the Buttermilk Trail—which people use to walk, hike, and get rad on bikes—crossed over onto the private property of Josh and Carrie Belt Rogers. You can imagine that the idea of folks getting a little too rad and injured while on their property stressed the Rogers out. We should all be really thankful that they decided to permanently preserve the trail system as it is rather than putting up some fences and blocking access—something that would have been totally within their rights to do. AXIOS Richmond has a nice map of the new easement and location of the existing Buttermilk Trail. David Ress at the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Councilmember Lynch has withdrawn her proposal to rename the Robert E. Lee Bridge to the Belvidere Bridge. While Belvidere Bridge probably makes the easiest sense as a new (and needed!) name for this bridge, the namesake Belvidere was a 1700s estate owned by William Byrd III—a rich white man who enslaved people. Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams has some more on that history of Belvidere and some reactions from community members, if you want to dig in. I get it, like Lynch says in one of the aforelinked stories, “Richmond's history is complicated.” Unfortunately for us, a lot of the names attached to our streets and infrastructure have disturbing histories that we've forgotten (or intentionally ignore), and its worth being thoughtful before attaching a new, long-lasting name to a thing. I think pumping the brakes on this particular renaming and switching to a community-driven process was a good idea. I also think that the City could just take down the “Robert E. Lee Bridge” signs today, and not wait for the results of that community process. I also also think we should just rename it back to the James River Bridge, its original 1933 name before the Lost Causers got ahold of it. Charlotte Rene Woods, also at the RTD, reports that the Virginia NAACP has paid $20,000 to the state Attorney General's office for a FOIA request related to the office's “Election Integrity Unit.” These Republican-created voter fraud tasks forces typically find zero cases of actual fraud and mostly exist to create headlines. Given that the AG's EIU is probably vaporware, who knows what will result from this request. Either way, that is a ton of money to spend on a FOIA. Huge news! according to their instagram, shoestring fries are back Joe's Inn: “Five years ago, on October 4, 2017 - we got new fries. People were upset, people were divided. Since then, we can all agree that much has occurred. While the world has changed around us — we haven't forgotten those delicious golden skinny shoestring fries of yore. After an exhaustive search we have finally found a fry we can be proud of. And so, starting today (and beyond) we are happy to report that SHOESTRING FRIES ARE BACK!” This is personally exciting to me as, for my money, nothing beats sopping up the remains of an over-medium egg with crispy shoestring fries. This morning's longread Fall In Yep, still exploring time and calendars and seasons and phases. We're all on a journey together, and I hope you're enjoying it! This leads to a question: Should one also change in conjunction with the seasons? By this I mean more than donning a natty scarf when the temperature drops below a certain level—I mean changing things about the way you eat, sleep, live, and work. Conventional productivity advice doesn't really take up this question. One of the things, in fact, that irks me about such advice is that it tends to frame things in terms of daily routines, routines that are ostensibly the same regardless of the season. In other words, most productivity advice is seasonless. Here I'm thinking of things like Mason Currey's engrossing 2013 book Daily Rituals and Tim Ferriss's more tech bro-y late-2016 knockoff Tools for Titans. Now, I'm as interested in famous people's daily routines as anyone. But at the same time, I feel it's important to resist the tyranny of “the day.” If you'd like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol' Patreon. Picture of the Day Hitching a ride.

In this episode we are going to explore ways to make time and space to write, and quieten the noise of the world so we can go deep within. This episode includes:-       Practical ways to make time for writing-       My revelation that writing doesn't have to be done at a desk(!)-       How to deal with any guilt around making time for writingIn each episode, I will talk for about fifteen to twenty minutes, and then offer you a timed writing exercise at the end to try, for another ten minutes. Grab yourself a cuppa and settle in for a lovely writerly chat. With inspiration from Mason Currey, Henry Miller, Shakti Gawain and Ryōkan Taigu.I hope this podcast will help you write fearlessly, and with joy, and build a writing practice that nourishes you for the rest of your life. I'd love to see what writing it inspires – feel free to share by tagging me @bethkempton #fearlesswriterpodcastBethXxPS Please note there is a chunk of silence in this podcast. It is supposed to be there for the weekly writing exercise!Click here to download the transcriptThe theme music for The Fearless Writer Podcast is The River sung by Danni Nicholls, co-written by Danni Nicholls and me, Beth Kempton. Listen on iTunes / Spotify / Youtube and feel free to add it to your Instagram reels! See here for the lyrics and full credits.***Did you know the audiobook version of The Way of the Fearless Writer includes a full meditation album to help get the words flowing? You can get it here. Resources mentioned in this episode:•      Daily Rituals by Mason Currey (Picador) p.53 •      Untitled by Ryokan (translated by John Stevens) in The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness and Joy by John Brehm (Ed.) (pub. Wisdom) p.113 •      Living in the Light by Shakti Gawain (New World Library) p.27 •      The Way of the Fearless Writer: Ancient Eastern wisdom for a flourishing writing life by Beth Kempton (Piatkus). US/Canada edition HERE More at bethkempton.com / dowhatyouloveforlife.com / Instagram @bethkempton

We asked Robert Reich to share his advice on learning to use his writing and drawing skills to illustrate his Substack. Read on for Robert’s advice, or listen to him read it aloud above.This is the fifth in a recurring series of longform writer advice, following Alicia Kennedy’s advise on learning to listen, Embedded’s Kate Lindsay’s advice on creating trust with your readers, Lance’s Anna Codrea-Rado’s advice on learning to celebrate just how far you’ve come, and Mason Currey’s advice on creative growth.Could you use some advice or inspiration from a fellow writer about creativity, motivation, and the writing life? Submit your question for consideration for a future advice column by leaving it in the comments below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

The world is changing for women -- but is it getting better? Manjima Bhattacharjya joins Amit Varma in episode 280 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe her journey as a feminist and why she believes in the long arc. She also talks about her book Intimate City, and the changing face of sex work in India. Also check out: 1. Manjima Bhattacharjya on Twitter, YouTube and Google Scholar. 2. Intimate City -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 3. Mannequin: Working Women in India's Glamour Industry -- Manjima Bhattacharjya. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri on Amazon. 5. Empire of the Sun -- Steven Spielberg. 6. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones — Pradip Krishen. 7. Farouk Abdul-Aziz and Kuwait Cine Club. 8. Nancy Drew on Wikipedia and Amazon. 9. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande -- Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 10. Some episodes on The Seen and the Unseen that touched on feminism with Paromita Vohra, Kavita Krishnan, Kavitha Rao, Namita Bhandare and Shrayana Bhattacharjya,  11. Kali For Women. 12. Jagori. 13. Mrityudand -- Prakash Jha. 14. The Ferment of Our Founders -- Episode 272 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Kapila). 15. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 16. Bargaining with Patriarchy -- Deniz Kandiyoti. 17. On the Road to Change -- A conversation between Kavita Krishnan and Amit Varma. 18. If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai — Srinath Perur. 19. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens -- Amit Varma. 20. Most of Amit Varma's writing on DeMon, collected in one Twitter thread. 21. Who gains from the new Maternity Benefit Act Amendment? -- Devika Kher. 22. Here's What's Wrong With the Maternity Benefits Act -- Suman Joshi. 23. Why Children Labour (2007) -- Amit Varma. 24. Metrics of Empowerment — Episode 88 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Devika Kher, Nidhi Gupta and Hamsini Hariharan). 25. The #MeToo Movement -- Episode 90 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Supriya Nair and Nikita Saxena). 26. An Economist Looks at #MeToo -- Episode 92 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 27. Superforecasting — Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner. 28. The Problem that Has No Name -- Betty Friedan. 29. Kamla Bhasin and Abha Bhaiya. 30. Live Sex Acts -- Wendy Chapkis. 31. Beautiful Thing — Sonia Faleiro. 32. Two Girls Hanging From a Tree -- Episode 209 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sonia Faleiro). 33. Daily Rituals — Mason Currey. 34. Daily Rituals: Women at Work — Mason Currey. 35. Thin Places -- Ann Armbrecht. 36. Cheryl Strayed on Amazon. 37. Mahanagar — Satyajit Ray. 38. India = Migration -- Episode 128 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 39. India Moving — Chinmay Tumbe. 40. Abhimaan -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 41. Natasha Badhwar on Amazon. 42. Parenthood -- Episode 43 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Natasha Badhwar). 43. Yuzvendra Chahal's bullying. 44. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 45. Temporarily Yours – Intimacy, Authenticity and the Commerce of Sex -- Elizabeth Bernstein. 46. The Girlfriend Experience. 47. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 48. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 49. Literotica stories archive. 50. The news article about a journalist and some artists forced to strip to their underwear. 51. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator economy with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 52. 11th Lane: Kamathipura -- Sudharak Olwe. 53. Tawaif -- Episode 174 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Saba Dewan). 54. Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. 55. An Educated Woman In Prostitution -- Manada Devi. 56. Factory Girls -- Leslie T Chang. 57. Gangubai Kathiawadi -- Sanjay Leela Bhansali. 58. Elles -- Malgoska Szumowska. 59. The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- Philip Kaufman. 60. Roger Ebert's review of Unbearable Lightness. 61. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire — Luis Buñuel. 62. The Discreet Charm of the Savarnas -- Rajesh Rajamani. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! The illustration for this episode is by Nishant Jain aka Sneaky Artist. Check out his work on Twitter, Instagram and Substack.

We asked Helena Fitzgerald to share her advice on navigating isolation as a writer. Helena writes Griefbacon—a newsletter on the weirdness of relationships for “the last people at the party after everyone else has gone home.” Listen on for her experience of solitude in writing, or listen to her read it aloud above.Dear writer, how does isolation play into your writing experience? When do you crave it, and at what point do you seek support, collaboration, or edits? How do you come up for air when the loneliness of writing becomes too much? *This is the fifth in a recurring series of longform writer advice, following Alicia Kennedy’s advice on learning to listen, Embedded’s Kate Lindsay’s advice on creating trust with your readers, Lance’s Anna Codrea-Rado’s advice on learning to celebrate just how far you’ve come, and Mason Currey’s advice on creative growth.Could you use some advice or inspiration from a fellow writer about creativity, motivation, and the writing life? Submit your question for consideration for a future advice column by leaving it in the comments on Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

因為19年金曲獎的緣份，9m88遇見了Joanna，雙Jo的神奇橋樑因此接上！沒得獎的88在當晚隨即收到得獎的Joanna的合作邀請。時隔多年，終於在2022推出了翻唱合作歌曲 。這次兩位創作者用中英雙聲道的方式，聊創作方法以及對生活和事業的洞見，彼此迥異與不謀而合的地方都彌足珍貴！註：訪問中Joanna使用英文較多，建議用打開英文耳朵的心態收聽

因為19年金曲獎的緣份，9m88遇見了Joanna，雙Jo的神奇橋樑因此接上！沒得獎的88在當晚隨即收到得獎的Joanna的合作邀請。時隔多年，終於在2022推出了翻唱合作歌曲 。這次兩位創作者用中英雙聲道的方式，聊創作方法以及對生活和事業的洞見，彼此迥異與不謀而合的地方都彌足珍貴！註：訪問中Joanna使用英文較多，建議用打開英文耳朵的心態收聽

After a long sabbatical of procrastination, I have returned to finish our trilogy on creativity. In today's episode, I sit down with Mason Currey, the author of Daily Rituals and Daily Rituals: Women at Work. We tackle one of my leading questions about creativity - how to create when it feels like the world is swallowing you!Topics-Why and how Mason Currey wrote Daily RitualsGetting addicted to artHow to maximize creative energy Habits - the key to creativityWhat we can learn from great artists' creative processHow creators balance life and artHas the creative process changed over the centuries?The importance of ruthless routines How tiny increments build great works (even when life is busy)What books have had an impact on Mr. CurreyWhat advice Mr. Currey has for teenagersThe Writer's highResources-Daily Rituals - https://amzn.to/3KtQmQlDaily Rituals: Women at Work - https://amzn.to/3s5Zx34The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923 (The Schocken Kafka Library) - https://amzn.to/3vTDWw8The Metamorphosis - https://amzn.to/3LCq006Mason Currey is the author of the Daily Rituals books, featuring brief profiles of the day-to-day working lives of more than 300 great creative minds. He's currently working on a new book and writing Subtle Maneuvers, a newsletter about the ups and downs of the creative process. He lives in Los Angeles.Socials! -Website: https://www.aimingforthemoon.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiming4moon/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aiming4MoonTaylor's Blog: https://www.taylorgbledsoe.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-TwYdfPcWV-V1JvjBXkAll Amazon Affiliate links help financially support "Aiming for the Moon" while you get a great read or product.

After reading Daily Rituals How Artists' Work by Mason Currey, I reflected that there's only one habit I will pick from all those artists today: #walking